As I had once vowed, I began to speak as I pleased when I was at work. This in turn led to me sometimes forgetting myself before Mrs Dempster, but her ire only increased my determination not to let her eradicate the person I perceived myself to be. And nor did I let her actions go unanswered.

I saw to it thereafter that when she beat me, one of her animals died. I was patient in my retribution, lest she too quickly understand the correlation between the two events.

Why did I not simply kill Mrs Dempster, you may well ask, and the answer lies partly in what I have just told you. Back then I had the means but not the fortitude. Drugging some pathetic specimen in the hospital was a different prospect to poisoning a robustly healthy woman in her own home, particularly one who loomed so large in my perception. However, I was growing stronger all the time.

I was paid a little more by this time but chose to continue living at the house in Canonmills. I had seen the kinds of low places my fellow nurses inhabited, as well as the little they could afford to eat, and decided that living with the Dempsters was preferable. It must also be acknowledged that I had unfinished business in that house.

Martha was still living there too, though finally, to Mrs Dempster’s delight, there was a healthy and indeed handsome prospect of that changing. Mrs Dempster would always talk about her real daughter as though she was quite the beauty, but betrayed her true perception in the surprise she showed in having secured for her a match. It goes without saying that she had made no such efforts on my behalf.

I knew what fair looked like in a girl, having seen it in my real sister, Ellie. It had always been clear that she would be a beauty, and at the Institute it was already becoming apparent that she would use this to find favour. I had not seen Ellie in years. She was ‘adopted’ too, though Mrs Dempster took delight in dropping hints that she had caused trouble for her new family and was likely to be put out as a result.

Martha was as plain as me, if not plainer, and certainly a good deal plumper. Nor was she as clever as me, but nonetheless, all of Mrs Dempster’s efforts and aspirations were coming to fruition. Her daughter was engaged to be married to a gentleman by the name of Colin Flett, who worked for the General Steam Navigation Company in Leith.

He had been invited to the house for dinner some months before because he was a client of Mr Dempster at the bank. That was when he started to take an interest in Martha, an interest she heartily reciprocated (though not as heartily as her mother).